We are unprepared for the reality we accept

...I've been mulling over these thoughts for a few days, in the midst of doing work and trying to get over a multi-day case of heartburn.

A couple of days ago, someone sent me a link to Brad DeLong's blog. Though this is a person who's been ending his posting recently with the phrase "Impeach George Bush. Impeach him now," he's got this on his site from September 5 (I'd link, but I don't like/can't use trackback):

Officials are recording the evacuation message even as recent research by the University of New Orleans indicated that as many as 60 percent of the residents of most southeast Louisiana parishes would remain in their homes in the event of a Category 3 hurricane. Their message will be distributed on hundreds of DVDs across the city. The DVDs' basic get-out-of-town message applies to all audiences, but the it is especially targeted to scores of churches and other groups heavily concentrated in Central City and other vulnerable, low-income neighborhoods, said the Rev. Marshall Truehill, head of Total Community Action. "The primary message is that eachperson is primarilyresponsibleforthemselves, for their own family and friends," Truehill said.

You would think that somebody--somewhere--would have called Washington and said, "You know, New Orleans doesn't have its act together enough to have a hurricane evacuation plan." And that somebody, somewhere--in Washington or in Baton Rouge--would have cared.

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